Here's a tip for you cats -- get a Dropbox account and store your important files on it. You get two gigabytes of storage for free and the thing is easy to set up and use locally. The importance of Dropbox is this -- when your computer flakes out on you, at least you can recover your important files (the ability to access your files from virtually anywhere you have an Internet connection is important, too).

At any rate, I was surprised to see my hard drive on my netbook die because I've only had this nifty little computer for a year. Rather than go back to Windows XP, I decided to try something new -- Ubuntu Linux. Here's what I've learned -- Linux isn't scary, weird, limited or anything else. It just works and works very well.

Christmas has come and gone and good old Santa Claus left a Microsoft Kinect for the kids.

They must have been good this year as the Kinect is one of the "hot toys" of the season. However, there are some questions about it. Does it actually work? Is it a ton of fun? Does it live up to Microsoft's hype?

Yes, Microsoft doesn't really have a good track record when it comes to releasing products that work as promised and are as cool as the company's hyperbole suggests.

I'm happy to report, however, that the Kinect does work and the potential is there to provide a slew of fantastic motion-based games. Whether the controller will realize its potential and live up to the hype remains to be seen, but Microsoft appears to be on the right track with this.

On Wednesday, the hardworking folks over at First Arkansas News released a housing market report showing that yet another real estate market in Arkansas is is still struggling through this mess of an economy.

Sales in central Arkansas fell 31.25 percent last month, continuing a trend in declining sales that took hold in the summer and hasn't let up since.

Click here to see the First Arkansas News report and make sure to click a few links and see what's going on in other parts of the state, too.

Looks like we're in the middle of a long winter folks, as far as the economy goes, at least.

A few months ago I went and started First Arkansas News and have quite a bit of success with it (not a lot of money yet, but I've had plenty of fun and traffic).

A few people have asked how they can start their own nifty blog and have as much fun as I am. The truth of the matter is this -- running a blog takes a lot of time and effort, but it's not expensive to buy some server space and get cracking.

If you're traveling, be safe. Most of all, have a lot of fun and I do hope everyone gets at least a few days away from work.

One of my favorite things -- and particularly around the holidays -- is old time radio. I grew up listening to that stuff in reruns with my dad and have been thrilled with the shows I can find in MP3 format.

Over at First Arkansas News, I've been posting plenty of Thanksgiving-themed OTR programs. Want to listen to some of them? Sure you do! Just click here and get ready for the fun.

Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service: A Movie You CAN'T Afford to Miss. This Friday October 15, I WANT YOUR MONEY – the highly anticipated, hilarious Obama exposé that everyone is talking about - will open in movie theaters nationwide.

If you’re tired of Obama’s big-government-tax-and-spend policies, YOU WILL LOVE THIS MOVIE! I WANT YOUR MONEY is a controversial new film about the competing economic visions championed by Presidents Reagan and Obama – a duel of speeches, wit, animation and narrative that leaves audiences laughing, cheering, yelling . . . and engages them in the national conversation about the mounting national debt, and why it matters. After all, IT’S YOUR MONEY THEY ARE SPENDING.

I screened this movie and then participated in two advanced showings of the film to two very different audiences. One in Washington, D.C and one in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains. The movie resonated with both audiences and it will resonate with a majority of people except for liberal elites. Although a documentary, the movie is interspersed with animated cartoons which allows the viewer time to absorb the material and to have a laugh while points are illustrated. Without these cartoons the movie would indeed be shorter, peoples blood pressure would be elevated, and their minds would have been overtaxed with the reality of the present situation.

There is also hope in this movie as the truth is shared about socialism which is destructive to individual freedoms and the well being of people. The words of Ronald Reagan share how capitalism, individual freedom and choice raises the economic well being of all people at all income levels. Audiences will find finds themselves cheering at the end movie when the "Gipper" takes on Barack Obama.

Take your family and friends to this movie. While the November elections are upon us, this movie will help prepare people for conversations with their elected officials after the elections. It is time to hold them accountable at all levels be it Federal, State, County or City. Remember, it is "your money," your family and friends' money and the money of future generations that the government is taking and wasting.

I Want Your Money includes insightful interviews with Newt Gingrich, Steve Forbes, Ed Meese, Mike Huckabee, John Stossel, Michael Reagan, Congressmen Tom McClintock, Thad McCotter and former California governor Pete Wilson, among many others, EXPLAINING CLEARLY WHY OBAMA’S PLAN HAS FAILED, AND WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO RECOVER.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
- "Don't procrastinate, go to this movie and share what you learn with others!" - Bill Smith, ARRA News Service
- “A must see for Americans!” - Stephen Moore Wall St. Journal
- "Hilarious, highly informative and inspiring!" - MovieGuide
- “A great film; entertaining and very clever!” - Former Attorney General Ed Meese
- “This is not your usual (boring) political documentary. It’s engaging and funny, even as it conveys a serious message about economics and politics.” - Hans A. von Spakovsky, National Review
- “This film will make all American taxpayers laugh, think and, I hope, act to save our jobs, our economy and our future.” - Grover G. Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
- “A Tea Party party!” - Kara Swisher, Wall Street Journal
- “Barack Obama meets Ronald Reagan, in the Oval Office!” - - Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner
- "Ray Griggs' documentary I Want Your Money has achieved the impossible: making the federal government's insatiable appetite for the fruits of your labor both enlightening and entertaining." - U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter, Republican House Policy Committee Chairman
- “Why don’t politicians think like us when it comes to money? Watch I Want Your Money to find out -- and do it before the next election.” - Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women For America
- "I Want Your Money exposes the venality of the Obama economic plan, but does so in a playful, lighthearted way. The result is that its humor is as devastating as its factual revelations." - Colin Hanna, Let Freedom Ring
- “A sobering yet humorous look at the damage we are doing to our country by shirking our moral responsibility on fiscal discipline. - Tony Perkins, FRC Action President
- “Where's the lefty documentarian Michael Moore? A young conservative Moore wannabe is out with new movie, I WANT YOUR MONEY-pretty good, too!” - Michael Medved, radio talk show host
- "I WANT YOUR MONEY is brilliant, entertaining and very funny. Responsible citizens of voting age should view I WANT YOUR MONEY as required viewing. - Pete Wilson, former Governor of California, US Senator
- “Visually inspiring, spiritually uplifting, bravely accurate and at times hysterically funny.“ - Kerri Houston Toloczko, Institute for Liberty
- “A concise, viewable history of how America got into its economic mess and what policies will free our country's citizens to prosper once again.” - David A Keene, President, American Conservative Union
- “Educational yet fresh and entertaining.“ - Darla Dawald, National Director of ResistNet.com

President Obama and his left wing allies are back to accusing AFP and its 1.2 million grassroots activists of being a "foreign-controlled corporation" or a front for "big banks" or "big oil". Why, because AFP reveals the special interest behind Obama's agenda and has a network of activists who are working to combat that agenda. Below is the video Response from AFP:

In the video, there are two photos included in the video which represent the over 30,000 AFP Activist in Arkansas. It certainly appears that Arkansas AFP actvists are scaring the bejesus out of President Barack Obama. One of the pictures is from the AFP RightOnline conference in Las Vegas. Right there in the front row cheering on the speakers are several people from the Faulkner County (Arkansas) Tea Party. Mr. Obama these people are AFP. They are voters with lots of friends, family and neighbors!

Another scene in the video is an audience of over 700 people who gathered at 8 am on a Wednesday morning in the Ozark Mountains in Baxter County, Arkansas to kick off the AFP November is Coming rally. Many of these fine people are members of the local Ozark TEA Party. This event was held on a school / work day during the week, otherwise thousands would have been present. At their last TEA party weekend event, over 3200 people attended. Mr. Obama these people are not foreign corporations, big banks or oil company minions or even lobbyists. And unlike the words in your speech, they are straight talking and do not prevaricate. Mr. Obama, these people are AFP and they vote and have lots of friends, family and neighbors! . . . [Read Full Story]
---------------Related Article:Barack Obama Gives Seal of Disapproval to Americans For ProsperityTags:Americans for Prosperity, AFP, Barack Obama, RightOnline, November is Coming, prosperity, America, Arkansas, Bill SmithTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

For those nay sayers such as Michael from Stuttgart on 103.7 the buzz - that Ryan Mallett can't win on the road. -- BOO- They did it and Ryan Mallett was big reason. Final few seconds - pressure is on and he did it - CHILDS PLAY!

22 OF 33 lets see this is 67% passing against an SEC team.

Granted - can they do it next week against Alabama. Well, Mark May of ESPN says that with his performance Mallett is still the front runner for the Heisman Trophy.

ARRA News Service. - The liberal New York Times indicates as of 8/31/10 that Arkansas is going "red" (Republican) in the November elections. However, conservatives are not resting but are out there on all fronts in Arkansas working to see that this occurs. The latest NYT status report for Congress:

Lincoln avoided being swept up by the anti-incumbent mood in the primary election, she remains one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators. Republicans view the race in Arkansas as one of their best opportunities to pick up a Democratic seat. The Republican candidate in the race, Representative John Boozman, has the benefit of the political environment on his side.

Check out what Hillbilly Willy believes we can do in Arkansas to ward off the negative thoughts of the economics. There are things that are important to Willy and many Rednecks and Willy believes that there is a method behind his madness of getting rid of the Obama Blues that we are under.

In an apparent attempt to cater to the fact that Saline County is gelling as region, the Benton Courier has changed its name to the Saline Courier.

While that might not seem like a big deal, it is to those of us who grew up with the Benton Courier. Still, considering how Saline County has grown up a lot since the Courier was established, the name change makes a lot of sense.

Click here for more of this fascinating story. You know you want to...

For those not in the know, Lum and Abner are a couple of characters created by good ole Arkansas boys who went on to dominate old time radio for years. The aforementioned society is selling some back issues of their newsletter and some script books -- great memorabilia for you and a chance to clear out some inventory for them.

ARRA News Service - As identified at the end of this video: All Politics are personal! Do you really want to really restore this Republic? We need you make some small sacrifice to make a difference so we all can be in the winner circle! Contact your local Republican party or a candidate that you like. Get involved, make a few phone calls, visit a few people, kick in $5 or whatever to their campaign, lets get others out to vote, so we can all meet in the winners circle.
-------------Pajamasmedia: You don't win elections by watching Glenn Beck. You've got to do the hard work - walk precincts, talk with neighbors and lick envelopes. Scott Ott, Stephen Green and Bill Whittle tell you what it will it take to deliver a Republican majority in Congress on Election Day. The midterm elections, Obama and the Tea Party Movement on this edition of Trifecta. [Video]

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) sent out a news release the other day stating that $700 million in mortgage guarantees is on its way to the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program.

Big deal here in the natural state? You'd better believe it. Rural Development loans are available all over the state through private lenders and exist as one of he few "zero down" mortgage programs available. To say that program has helped boost housing markets here in the Natural State is an understatement.

Old time radio (OTR) has been a passion of mine since I was but a lad listening to Lum and Abner reruns on a radio station out of Hot Springs, Ark., with my dad in the 1970s.

A lot of those shows have held up very well over the years, while others exist as an odd reflection of the times in which they were made.

I was a Communist for the FBI is one of those "reflective" shows that reveal a lot about how Americans viewed Communists in the Red Scare days of the 1940s and 1950s. Click here to hear for yourself -- it's a great show, to be sure, and is as entertaining as it is a bit of an historic document.

A few weeks ago, your good friend The Hawg was told by his employer (the Arkansas Realtors Association) that his services as the director of media relations were no longer required.

Fine with me. The boss long regarded me as a weisenheimer and troublemaker, anyway, and the last couple of years at work had been decidedly weird.

While I'll find another job, I had a more immediate concern -- what would happen to the House to House column that I spent years developing and shipping to 20 newspapers in Arkansas? The answer to that question was simple enough -- adjust the focus of the column a bit and see if the good people over at the Mortgage Bankers Association of Arkansas would want to sponsor it.

As luck would have it, they liked the idea and a new column was born. Yes, we've even got some papers running it. If you'd like to see the first column in my new series, just click here.

Yes, indeed. Setting off fireworks is now totally illegal in Benton, Ark. While towns run by city councils with a lick of sense generally make exceptions for people wanting to shoot off fireworks around the Fourth of July and New Year's Day, there is no such exception in place in my town.

Lesterville2k2 - The members of the Democrat party have given us a lot to consider before voting in November 2010. This video presents just 11 reasons to consider voting for the Democrats. Are you motivated yet?

Video produced by Duane Lester. This is a great video for Tea Party members and others to share.

Wandering into the fun-filled world of Web hosting is confusing, indeed.

Most small and medium-sized business owners realize the importance of having a strong presence on the Internet, but what must one do to build and maintain that presence? Who can help keep that presence up and running, offer 24-hour support, advice and all those other technical things that drive most of us nuts?

One company that can help with everything from hosting a site to maintaining on-site servers is Superb Servers. Do phrases like dedicated server hosting, managed hosting solutions and colocation services sound a bit "buzz wordy?" Those phrases make sense to the cats at Superb Servers, and that's all that matters -- if you want to expand your Internet presence, build a solid network, etc., that particular company can help.

That's right -- we've got three people running for lieutenant governor here in the Natural State. Two Republicans face off in the primaries on May 18 and the winner of that will face the loan Democrat in the race in the November elections.

Click here to visit FirstArkansasNews.net and hear interviews with Democrat Shane Broadway and Republicans Donnie Copeland and Mark Darr. No endorsements. No loaded questions. No nonsense. Just the candidates telling voters why they should be elected. Don't miss it, bub!

Statistics are important regardless of what you do for a living. I use them every day in my job as a public relations guy and used them extensively as a business reporter. What do all those earning reports from, say, trucking companies mean? How can a housing report be properly analyzed unless you know what the numbers tell you?

Statistics are important but they're not always taught terribly well (my knowledge of statistics came through forcing myself to learn about them). For folks who are a bit lost when it comes to statistics, there's statistics help available. And here's the good news -- a statistics tutor might cost less than you think.

That's right -- finding someone to provide those statistics problems and statistics questions and explain what the purpose of running through those exercises actually is can be found quickly through the Internet. What's more, you can do it all online and find a custom program set up for students in ages K-12 and college. Some online tutoring, indeed, might be just the thing for a student getting ready to go back to school for the year (or one who is between semesters) and needs a little help before entering the classroom.

That one is designed to be, primarily, a news site featuring some journalists from across the state. A few of them have agreed to write for it and I do hope it's a success.

Meanwhile, check it out if you're so inclined. Want to write for it? We could use some more reporters who are willing to work for free in hopes of building up enough traffic to generate some ad revenue so I can start sending money to folks. If you're interested in that, click here to send me an email.

Tomorrow is Tax Day, Earth Day and thank goodness for those opposed to all these taxes: a self-proclaimed TEA Party Day. The Obama Administration's spending in the past year has been unprecedented and Tax Day won't come and go quietly. In just over a year, Democrats in Washington have proposed trillions of dollars in new taxes on American Families -- and passed hundreds of billions in new taxes to pay for their government takeover of our health care. These new taxes affect you and your family -- every day.

A tactic that is shamelessly employed by both Democrats and Republicans has to do with outright lying to their bases so as to scare some votes out of people. How about a bit of honesty in politics? Or have we gone too far down the "this works so let's just do it" path to expect much in the way of honor out of pundits on both sides of the aisle?

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the actual post link here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava's Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

One Term President: JOIN THE REVOLUTION! Are you discontent with this President and the direction he is trying to take our country? Help make this the symbol of discontent in the United States. Also on FaceBook OTP is the symbol for tax paying, hardworking Americans who are sick & tired of Earmarks, Bailouts, Biased Media, Nobel Prizes and SPENDING that just might bankrupt our great country. Time for an OTP bumper stickers on cars, trucks, campers across the country.

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